Natural Perfumery and Health

I’ve done a LOT of juicing in my life. I started out in the ’70s using a Champion juicer- the one with a single-auger that had sharp little metal teeth on it (see photo below). It was loud, had a tortuous relationship with celery, and the juice started going bad moments after it was poured in a glass. It took forever to clean.

Then I got an Acme centrifugal juicer (see photo below). It was loud and had fussy little paper filters that had to be placed in the centrifuge. I had to take it apart every few minutes to empty it out. It took forever to clean. Then the motor burned out and it died.

After that I got a cheap Phoenix juicer. The pulp emptied out in a bowl, making it easier than the Acme. It was loud, the juice deteriorated quickly, and it also died young.

I quit juicing for a long time. Then I got breast cancer. After a lot of fast and furious research, I decided that I wanted to go on the Gerson Therapy cancer protocol. Gerson therapy involved juicing five quarts of juice a day, and the juice needs to be absolutely fresh. Enzymes are critically important for getting over cancer, so the juicer must not expose the vegetables to high heat which kills the enzymes.

Centrifugal and high-speed masticating juicers such as the Acme, Champion and Jack LaLane juicers all create a lot of heat and inject air into the juice, causing it to deteriorate rapidly. Not to mention they sound like screaming jet engines.

The people at the Gerson institute recommended a Norwalk Press. It cost about $2,000, which was out of the question. The only other juicer they recommended was an Angel Juicer. This was a twin-gear slow RPM juicer that cost me about $800.

The Angel was an incredible juicer! Was. It died in a horribly short time. It got me through cancer, through six months of heavy daily juicing. After that I used it sporadically for awhile. Then a little nylon transfer gear deep inside the housing, a part that cost maybe 25 cents, broke. The company was nowhere to be found. That was the end of my $800 “all-steel” juicer.

While the Angel worked, it was quiet, fast and efficient. The gear tolerance was super tight so it crushed the cellulose walls of the vegetables and released all the juice without any heat whatsoever. The pulp was very dry. It took about fifteen minutes to clean the Angel thoroughly. The juice kept in the refrigerator all day without significant deterioration or separation.

The next juicer I got, and the one I use now, is an Omega 8005 masticating juicer (see photo above). It uses a single auger made of hard Melamine. I bought it a few years ago for $229.

The Omega 8005 is quiet, fast and very efficient. Cute, too. It reminds me of an old stainless Sunbeam toaster. It’s not quite as efficient with carrots as the Angel was, but it’s more efficient than the Angel with Granny Smith apples. Compared to other juicers it makes very little foam. It handles everything I put through it, even celery. And best of all, it takes less than two minutes to clean!

The juice keeps well in the refrigerator, especially if you store it in glass Mason jars. I don’t think it crushes the cellulose walls as well as the Angel because the juice separates when I store it. So whether or not the Omega is a good juicer to use for cancer therapy, I don’t know.

What I do know is, a small, compact juicer that doesn’t take up a lot of counter space, is quiet, easy to use and even easier to clean, is a juicer that gets used. Get this juicer. You will love it!

Most vetiver oil is obtained by steam distillation, whereby hot steam is used to separate the fragrant oils from the root. A vetiver ruh, on the other hand, called Ruh Khus is made from a gentler process called hydrodistillation. Hydrodistillation is also the method used to obtain Natural Indian Attars.

With hydrodistillation, plants are simmered in water. The aromatics rise in the steam, which is collected in a separate receiving vessel. This is exactly the process whereby Attars are obtained, only with attars there is sandalwood oil in the receiving vessel. With a ruh, there are no carrier oils in the receiver. A ruh of Roses is called Rose Otto.

Making a ruh requires huge amounts of fresh plant material and labor, making them more expensive than steam-distilled essential oils. But they are worth it for their superior fragrance. Hydrodistillation uses lower heat and pressure than steam, so fragile fragrance molecules are better preserved. Ruhs and Attars retain more of the life-force of the plant, and that translates to fresher, truer aromas and more potent healing compounds.

My Ruh Khus comes from wild northern Indian vetiver grass. It is very potent and a deep dark emerald green in color. (Most steam-distilled vetiver oil is brown.) Its fragrance is earthy and smoky, grassy, with a hint of mint.

Traditionally, Ruh Khus is used in cold compresses to help relieve fevers and headaches, and to reduce heat and inflammation in arthritic joints and overworked muscles.

The fragrance of Ruh Khus is not for everybody, but to best appreciate it, it should be diluted to about 5-10% in a neutral carrier oil such as jojoba. Samples available.

India has an abundance of fragrant flora, and one if the most beloved is the wild grass called Vetiver, or Khus. People have been distilling vetiver roots for their fragrant oil for thousands of years.

The vetiver plant has several unique properties, among them are it’s ability to cool. Vetiver works as a natural refrigerant. Woven mats of vetiver are sprinkled with water and waved as fans. These cool the surrounding temperature several degrees more than other fans do.

Vetiver is strongly antimicrobial. Air filters for evaporative coolers made from vetiver stay clean and healthful, while air filters made from cheaper straw will mildew.

Vetiver oil is also used on cold compresses to reduce fevers and pain from inflamed joints and arthritic swelling.

Aromatically, the vetiver root gives us a very potent fragrance oil that is used in perfumery as a fixative, or base note. Fixatives are the deep, sustaining fragrances in a perfume blend; they serve to hold the lighter fragrances together in a harmonious whole. Vetiver is one of the strongest fixatives, with tremendously long scent life.

Vetiver oil is one of the most complex fragrances known, containing over 150 different aromatic molecules, many of which have not yet been studied. Vetiver oil is also quite unusual, in that it can possess either polar negative or polar positive characteristics. Fragrance varies according to region. The most prized vetiver is the wild vetiver from northern India. This is the source of the Ruh Khus that I carry.

The fragrance of vetiver oil is green and grassy, earthy and smoky, with traces of mint. Vetiver’s fragrance can vary from plant to plant, even in the same region. It can often be appreciated better when diluted to about 5-10% in a neutral oil such as jojoba.

I’ve been working hard to improve Tigerflag Natural Perfumery to make it easier to shop. To that end, I’ve given each item it’s own page, added pictures for the attars and improved the navigation. Now it’s easier to find related items and relevant articles when you’re shopping. I hope you like it!

Natural Indian Attars

Aromatherapy Perfumes

Madini Perfumes

Beeswax Votives, Pillars and Tea Lights

Handmade Natural Soaps

Please let me know what you think and if I can make any improvements for you.

Blessed Be!

It’s been a brutally long, hot summer. The earth is parched and cracked. Farmers pray for life-giving rain. Finally it comes!

As the first drops of rain strike the ground, the earth awakens and breathes forth a wonderful aroma. That’s the fragrance of Mitti Attar! Mitti is the fragrance of Mother Earth breathing and coming back to life. A nurturing fragrance, soft and mellow, deeply quiet and soothing…

Soil is more than just a holder for plant roots. It is filled with billions of tiny micro-organisms that convert minerals into forms that plants can absorb. Without soil micro-organisms, we could not live. When the soil is dry and parched the micro-organisms go dormant. When the soil becomes moist, they wake up and literally begin to breathe again. That wonderful fragrance that the earth exudes when it is struck by rain is literally the exhalation of the earth!

The process of making Mitti Attar is a fascinating one:

Earth from the bed of the River Ganges is formed into little patties. These are baked in a kiln. Then they are taken to a copper still called a deg to be distilled into an Attar

The deg sits over a dung fire. It is filled with water and brought to a boil. A bamboo pipe goes from the lid of the deg to a small copper vessel that is filled with sandalwood oil. This smaller vessel sits in a bath of water to keep it cool.

The soil micro-organisms react instantly to the presence of water, so the attar-maker must move very fast. The earthen patties are dropped into the boiling water and the lid is quickly dropped, sealed with a mixture of clay and cotton. That first burst of steam contains the precious molecules of fragrance.

The steam condenses and flows down the bamboo pipe to the vessel of sandalwood oil. As it cools, the fragrant oils merge into the sandalwood. This process is repeated daily for weeks until the sandalwood is completely saturated with the fragrance of Mitti.

After the process is completed, the sandalwood oil is poured into leather bags and allowed to age. Like a fine wine, a good attar actually improves with time.

Mitti Attar is a celebration of Life. It is beautiful worn alone, and blends well with all the other attars.

Yesterday I received an email from a woman who had read my paper on “How I Beat Cancer” using natural methods. She wanted to do a reciprocal link between our sites. Her site was promoting a book she says her father wrote about how he “beat cancer in 42 days using a natural method”.

That seemed interesting; I’m always open to new information when it comes to cancer cures. So I went to the site to check it out.

Lots of claims, buzzwords and hype: about how he had always been robustly healthy, got sick, was considered incurable by the medical establishment, how he deteriorated, how he found a magic bullet and was totally cured in 42 days. How he “shared the method with others” and how they’re also cancer-free. He even promises that everyone who uses his method will be cured. Then the kicker:

For only $39.95, he’ll share the method with you, too!

I have several problems with this. First, I do not believe that there is one sure-cure for all cancers, for all people, all the time. Kinesionics, or muscle-testing, has shown me that the same supplement or treatment doesn’t even work on me the same way all the time. Anyone who promises a sure cure for cancer is suspect in my mind.

Second, the treatment is only part of the cure. The other part is Grace, if you will. My healing was a gift of Grace. Grace (the divine gift, not my cat) led me to the information, people and treatments that were right for me.

That I was blessed and allowed to live makes me want to share my experience with others in the hopes that they, too, will find the answers that will help them. Notice I said “share” not “sell”.

That someone claims to have knowledge that will cure everyone of cancer, but withholds it from those who cannot pay (and withholds it from scrutiny and analysis) … that person is not someone whom I would trust, no matter how desperate I may be.

Call me a Luddite, but I refuse to own a microwave oven or a cellphone. As far as I’m concerned, their long-term safety has not been established but the hazards from microwaves are quite real.

Microwave ovens destroy the cancer-fighting antioxidants in your food. A study published in the Oct. 15, 2003 issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture stated that broccoli cooked in a microwave loses 97% of its antioxidants

Cooking food in plastic containers in a microwave causes xenoestrogen chemicals in the plastic to leach into the food. This increases the levels of estrogen-disruptors in the body and causes estrogen-dominance. Estrogen-dominance can lead to endometriosis, uterine fibroids, difficult menopause and cancer, among other things.

So, by using a microwave for convenience you not only deplete your food of nutrition, but you increase your risk of developing multiple diseases. Pretty convenient, huh?

Instead of a microwave I use the Aeromatic Convection Oven made by Aroma.

With this oven, meats come out incredibly tender and juicy. Vegetables retain their flavor and color. It’s amazingly versatile, too.

The Aroma oven is faster than a conventional oven, and is quieter and easier to clean than a typical convection oven. It doesn’t make the kitchen hot, either. That’s especially nice when you live in a in a hot climate.

More and more people and animals are suffering the effects of estrogen-disruptors. These are chemicals that behave in the body like estrogens. Also known as “xenoestrogens”, these chemicals are being dumped at toxic levels into our waterways, causing birth defects and sexual abnormalities in fish and amphibians. Recent reports from England and Virginia are telling people something that I’ve known for a long time: Xenoestrogens are more and more prevalent in the environment, and they’re dangerous.

Cattlemen give estrogen to their cattle to fatten them up before slaughter. The cattle get bloated with water weight gain. If you pan fry a steak and the pan fills with water, that’s a sign your meat was loaded with estrogen. Organically-raised beef doesn’t do that.

Other sources of xenoestrogens are plastics, pesticides in foods, chemicals in personal care and fragrance products, industrial solvents, Vitamin B6 and Magnesium deficiency, hormone replacement therapy and stress.

With so many sources of pollution that we can’t control, there are ways to reduce our exposure to these chemicals. One of the simplest things you can do is stop preparing and storing your food in plastic.

Start storing your food in glass containers. I use a lot of wide-mouth mason jars, both quart and pint sizes. Now, instead of a drawer cluttered with every size of plastic lid imaginable, I only have one size of lids for all my storage jars.

I also have some wonderful refrigerator storage containers from Anchor-Hocking (see picture above). These are made of beautiful, heavy, heirloom-quality glass. While they’re not cheap, they’re only a one-time expense and you’ll be passing them down to your grandchildren.

Never microwave or heat your food in plastic. Personally, I say never microwave anything at all, but that’s another story.

Throw out your non-stick pans. The coatings contain xenoestrogens which leach into your food as it cooks. Instead, use stainless steel, cast iron, and enamel-coated cookware such as Le Creuset. (Toss out your aluminum pots and pans while you’re at it. Aluminum is a toxic heavy metal that builds up in the brain, possibly causing Alzheimer’s disease.)

Switching to glass containers and non-reactive cookware is simple to do and just makes sense. Any expense is soon made up, and if it helps reduce your risk of cancer, it’s well worth the money.

Depression. Weight gain. High cholesterol. We see the drug ads on TV all the time. We are a drugged society, so much so that our water supplies are now showing high levels of antidepressants and other drugs. Pharmaceutical companies are making billions on our chronic illnesses.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Fibromyalgia. Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Millions of people are suffering but we don’t see drug ads for these illnesses, because nobody really knows what causes them or how best to treat them. What if the majority of all of these illnesses were all symptoms of one illness, one that’s not being diagnosed because the test is wrong?

I’m talking about hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism causes depression, weight gain, high cholesterol, and all the symptoms of the “mystery illnesses” above. Many millions of people, especially women, are actually hypothyroid and don’t know it. We are struggling through life undiagnosed. We’re taking drugs for symptoms of a disease, when we should be treating the disease itself.

How can this be? Three reasons, as I see it:
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We all love the smell and feel of natural beeswax candles. But paraffin candles are so much cheaper. Why spend the extra money on beeswax candles?

Paraffin wax is made from petroleum sludge at the bottom of oil refinery barrels. When it burns it emits nasty black smoke that stains your walls and ceiling. But did you know that burning paraffin puts out the same pollution as a diesel engine? That diesel exhaust with all its carcinogens doesn’t just stain your walls and ceiling; it gets into your lungs, too.

Most paraffin candles use cheap wicks that contain lead and other heavy metals. These also go up in flames, and into your lungs. High quality beeswax candles will use cotton wicks.

The EPA has said that indoor air pollution is often far greater than outdoor pollution. With so many pollutants in our environment that we can’t control, why add to our chemical overload if we don’t have to?

Natural beeswax candles are the healthful alternative to paraffin. Instead of creating indoor air pollution, beeswax candles emit beneficial negative ions that actually clean the air around them as they burn!

When kept out of drafts, beeswax candles burn about three-times longer than similarly- sized paraffin candles, and with a brighter flame. Even when they’re not burning they smell wonderful, like honey.

Beeswax is a natural by-product of honey production. Beeswax candles aren’t made from foreign oil and their manufacture doesn’t add to environmental pollution.

For all these reasons, natural beeswax votives, tealights and pillars are the ultimate candles for aromatherapy oil warmers and general home use.